New Serious Play software - Increases ReQuest iQ Multiroom Music System to 32 Zones

Music-server originator ReQuest (www.request.com) announces a software upgrade for the Serious Play operating system for all ReQuest music servers and the iQ Intelligent Music System. Serious Play 4.5.2 allows the iQ family of hard-disk-based multiroom audio systems to distribute independent music programming to as many as 32 discrete rooms or zones, a level of power that opens a new world of potential to both home-system and commercial applications.

“With 32 zones available, the iQ Intelligent Music System now offers a powerful music solution to even the most expansive or elaborate home system,” says Bill McKiegan, ReQuest’s V.P. of Sales & Marketing. “Every room in even the largest home or estate can now enjoy fully independent access to the complete music library with all the benefits of two-way control, and the powerful yet easy programming and playback options for which iQ is well known.” McKiegan continues, “Of equal note, 32-zone capability makes the iQ attractive to a range of commercial applications.”

ReQuest’s iQ Intelligent Music System combines the convenience of easy, intuitive, touchpanel-controlled whole-house audio with the powerful music storage and retrieval of hard-disk-based server design—plus the genuinely high-end sonic performance and unstinting quality for which ReQuest is known. The root system comprises the iQ.IMS Intelligent Music Server and the iQ.IMA 16-channel power amplifier, with control via a range of tabletop, in-wall, and wireless touchpanel options, or via virtual and Web-enabled devices.

Now, building on the iQ system’s well-established foundation of performance and unexcelled ergonomics, the Intelligent Music System’s unprecedented new expandability to 32 zones will reinforce ReQuest solutions’ leadership position.

iQ.IMS’s 32-zone performance is achieved with the addition of the iQ.SCK4, a USB-to-serial hub that permits the iQ.IMS server to communicate with up to four Intelligent Multichannel Amplifiers, to comprise a staggering 64 channels for 32 discrete rooms or zones. (The iQ.SCK2 is available for integrating two iQ.IMAs for systems of up to 16 zones.) Once connected, the iQ.IMS server automatically discovers the additional IMA amplifier(s), then adds them to the ”Rooms” section of the Web-server configuration tool, where they can be assigned and routed in the usual way. Whether distributing audiophile-grade sound to eight or fewer zones, or to up to 32 zones, the iQ.IMS distributes as many as six stereo music sources in audiophile quality: four CD-based streams from the internal hard-disk library, and two originating from AMFM/Satellite radio via compatible outboard tuners, which currently include models from Polk, Nuvo, Sherbourne Technologies, and Antex. The iQ system also offers two additional streams of Internet radio, for a grand total of eight independent sources.

The new ReQuest iQ.SCK4 (for functionality up to 32 zones) is available immediately, at a manufacturer’s suggested price of $250. The 16-zone 1Q.SCK2 (formerly named the iQ.RCK), also used for integrating outboard radio tuners, carries a suggested price of $150.